As the school board minority we have always gone out of our way to cooperate and work with the board majority to get things done, to find common ground to move our school district forward. Each time we have seen dog-and-pony shows as happened when we tried to develop a truly professionally data-driven district evaluation system in June 2011 in our efforts at turn around to keep our school district off probation, accountable with oversight and responsible. As usual, as minority board members, our voices and participation were shut out of an evaluation process, which is our job to do. Unfortunately, because of traditional obstruction, having an effective accountable-data-driven district evaluation tool for a school district near the bottom of the under-performing school districts in Illinois was not to be. Here is what makes us angry. While our student achievement continues to spiral downward, the majority school board is still willing to kick our children, our district 227 community businesses who pays a large share of our school district tax bill, and our community in the stomach in order to give a leg up to their special interests. If they really cared about the future of our children and our community, they would support us by following the school district 227 strategic accountability implementation procedures along with an effective board-developed-data-driven evaluation plan to improve student achievement.
No successful organization can survive and thrive in the absence of a professionally-developed-data-driven-valid-reliable evaluation system. But since the majority were opposed to being accountable, they made sure that it did not happen. In each case, we have continued to see lack of caring, game playing, negligence, lack of deliberations or cooperation, shutting other board members who want better out of the democratic process of participation, and a preference to try to blame the victims for board failures which is our students, parents and community who also want better. Rather than trying to improve student achievement levels, be transparent with oversight and open to engagement of the full board and school district community to achieve this goal they have merely tried to hide and then score more political points rather than actually working with the school board minority as a team to help our children and community. Meanwhile, our failures continue to loom and grow more grotesque.
Today, the school board majority has continued to making the art of the possible impossible. But we are not responsible for their failure expectations. The beginning of the board meeting of November 15, 2011 which constituted the public forum portion with questions from the community were not recorded as was the rest of the board meeting on the district 227 website. But during the board meeting, the board did not answer the community's questions. At our board meeting of November 15, 2011, the questions from the community asked the board "How are we going to improve student achievement going forward?. As the community asked, the stifling and gaveling of the board members who dared to answer made sure that any caring board members who would dare to respond to the community's questions were bound and gagged. So board responses to these significant community questions were never answered at this board meeting. Although the school board didn't respond to the community's questions, the community 's queries demonstrated that it cares about our schools, our children's future, our tax dollars, our property values, is focused and understands what is important.
Meanwhile, the school board 227 majority continues to argue that nothing can be done while remaining unfocused, uncaring, and isolated unto themselves. Today, they are so deranged by the presence of two new school board members who also want better for our children until they have continued and blatantly refused to do their job while covertly fighting our community who wants better. Unfortunately, they insist upon throwing the future of our children under the bus. Rather than facing reality and acknowledging the challenges that we face and working together as a team to get things done, they have continued to remain blind, unaccountable, oppressive, unfocused, abusive, uncaring, combative, non-cooperative, unfair, non-collaborative, and isolated while pushing their agenda of "me, my, and I only". They have continued to push this philosophy into the far reaches of irrationality as academic achievement levels continue to sink into the cesspool of the zero sum game they have played for twenty years now.
If everyone on the board learned and committed to the basics of school governance and the fairness of parliamentary procedure, we could have focused and productive meetings with purpose, rather than more wasted time on more fluff that is not focused on academic achievement. Everyone would be treated fairly and respected, no one's ideas and right to speak would be railroaded, all members could add items to the agenda equally, could rise and be recognized equally during board discussions, could give reports during the meetings, keep discussions to our basic issues and realistic priorities rather than to personalities, make and discuss motions, and everyone could contribute to discussions equally in an atmosphere of calm deliberations. Since the heavy atmosphere of suppression and oppression still looms large over board 227 meetings with theories of interposition and nullification of our school progress, this is not the case. Today, a school board meeting in district 227 for the minority who wants better for our children and community can still feel like a war zone. Today, in the midst of continued failure, our school board meetings have also become a hell hole where our community and any board member who wants better are mocked, marginalized, muzzled, and direspected.
There are three basic principles of parliamentary procedure: (1) Separate agenda items and take up business one item at a time. Doing so maintains order, expedites business, and accomplishes the purpose of the organization. (2) Promote courtesy, justice, impartiality, and equality in deliberative participation among board members. Parliamentary procedure means that no member speaks twice about a motion until all members are given the opportunity to speak once. This means taking turns. This ensures that everyone is heard, that members treat each other with courtesy and respect, that everyone has the same rights, and that no minority or special group is mistreated, barred from court, gaveled before they can speak, disrespected, as majority members are still singled out for special favors and can speak endlessly, as is the case at district 227 board meetings. See the recording of the last school board meeting of November 15, 2011 on the district 227 web site. (3) The majority rules, but the rights of individual minority board members who are discriminated against should be protected. The minority has a right to be heard and its ideas are taken seriously by our community.
When what was said becomes more important with value added significance than who said it, then we will have progress in our school district. This is called common sense leadership. Theirs is a reckless political agenda that has caused our schools to fail for twenty years and will only be stopped when we stand together and call them out. When the day comes when all ideas can be heard at board meetings, deliberated upon, and truthfully and accurately recorded in the board minutes, following these basic principles will value integrity and respect, more than disrespect and gag rules. This ethical-transparent movement with dignity and purpose will preserve the unity and harmony of the board 227 organization and restore meaningful self direction with purpose and progress in our school district.
David E. Morgan, Ph.D., Educational Leadership, School Board Member, Rich Township High School District 227, Olympia Fields, Illinois
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